Tardis Tales and other stuff
by takisys
Summary: a collection of stand-alone, drabbles, and other short story featuring mostly Nine/Rose/Jack and other variations on that team
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** New Friends in Strange Places

**Prompt:** Friendship.  
**Fandom/Characters**: Doctor Who: Pete's world. John Smith (10.5), Rose Tyler, and an alternate Jack.  
**Medium:** fic  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Warnings:** None that I can think of.  
**Summary : **Rose and John are living happily together in Pete's world, but one day the missing piece shows up.

**Word count:** 900 more or less.

**Note:** This challenge is taking me to very strange places. There will be three sequels to this fic. All written for Schmoop Bingo.

**Beta:** rabecka

…..

Rose stared at the boiling water. She was making tea for a man currently taking a shower. The man wasn't John. The man was in fact a perfect stranger, a stray she had picked up in the street.

This was December, a cold, rainy December evening. The man had been damp and shivering with cold, he'd looked miserable, but most of all, he looked like _home_, he looked like an old friend.

"What's going on?" John asked as he burst in.

Rose had called him earlier, and asked him to come home. She knew the project he was working on with Pete was important, but what she had to show him was important too. So she didn't answer him. She didn't need to. John had already spotted the man sitting across the kitchen table nursing his cup of tea like it was some treasure.

"Jack." John gaped. Of course this was not Jack, not _their_ Jack, or at least not the man they both knew as Captain Jack Harkness. For one thing, this one was mortal, though unmistakably fifty-first century bred; John could smell the pheromones from where he stood.

The man glanced uncomfortably at John, then back at Rose, and finally decide he'd better carry on sipping his tea, while those two dealt with whatever was going on between them. Because, for the time being, he was at a complete loss.

"I found him in the street, shivering in the cold." Rose said.

John could have said "_That is not Jack."_ But Rose already knew that, and _he_ wasn't exactly the _real thing_ either.

"You going to say you know me, too?" the lost time-traveller asked from behind his now empty cup.

John considered him. If anyone could hear their story and understand it, it would be this man. Even if he wasn't _their_ Jack.

He turned to Rose. "Do you remember who Jack was the first time you met him?"

"Yes." Rose said. "And I remember what made him change." She added. "Do you?"

John looked at the man still sitting at the table, still waiting silently. Studying him more carefully, John noted the uncertainty, the gauntness. Even though he knew Jack mostly through someone else's memory, this man was nothing like the conman his former selves had known. This man looked miserable, and truly vulnerable. "_He is a conman_," John reminded himself, good at faking.

"Rose was very kind to me, but I should probably go now," the young man said, rearranging John's dressing gown around him as he got to his feet. "My clothes should be dry by now..."

"Someone's waiting for you?" John asked. "You look like you could do with a hot meal."

"I... I don't do charity. Don't need your pity."

The Human-Time-Lord could tell the man was fighting to keep his dignity but tears were threatening, something was wrong with him. "This isn't about pity, Jack, or whatever you call yourself here." John said taking out his screwdriver. "Rose and I would like to help you."

"And why would you do that? Because I look like someone you used to know? And what the hell is that? Some sort of scanner?"

"It's a sonic screwdriver." Rose replied. "Is there something wrong?" she asked the Doctor.

"Nope. Just pregnant, two months." John said.

This time it was Rose who gaped like a fish out of water. "What?"

"Looks like our Jack never mentioned that little bit," John said very pleased with his gaping audience, especially since the future mum was gaping as well. "In the future, the far future and only on some remote colonies, men will one day be able to get pregnant."

"Who the hell are you?"

"I go by John Smith, Doctor John Smith. This is Rose Tyler, and neither of us belong here. We're from a parallel universe."

"So, this Jack of yours was my counterpart, I guess?"

"Yes, and he was our friend." Rose added.

"But I'm not him."

"No you're not, and we know that." John said. "But you're going to need help." he added gesturing toward the man's belly.

"You don't know me. I don't know what kind of guy your Jack was-"

"He used to be a Time-Agent, a conman, and a very trustworthy friend." Rose said, cutting him off. "Where's the father? I mean, there must be a father, right?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"Who the father is."

"Why should I be surprised?" John said. "Come over here, and make yourself comfortable. We've got a lot to talk about. But first, what's your name? Or the name you go by, if you prefer?"

"I think, I'm beginning to like it, being called Jack," he replied. "If it's okay with you, of course."

Stranded so far away from a home that didn't exist yet for them, and didn't exist anymore for him, the newly named Jack couldn't believe his luck. For some reason, Rose and John cared about him. They were compassionate and welcoming and somehow, they were making him begin to believe he could become a better man.

Next one: What's happening to me?


	2. Chapter 2

**Title:** What's happening to me

**Prompt:** Pregnancy (male or female)  
**Fandom/Characters**: Doctor Who: Pete's world. John Smith (10.5), Rose Tyler, and an alternate Jack.  
**Medium:** fic  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Warnings:** None that I can think of.  
**Summary : **Rose and John are living happily together in Pete's world, but one day the missing piece shows up.

**Word count:** 910 more or less.

**Note:** This challenge is taking me to very strange places. There will be three sequels to this fic. All written for Schmoop Bingo.

**Beta:** rabecka

…..

Jack woke up slowly. Two hands were entwined on his belly and neither of them was his. It felt nice being cared for like this. It was something he wasn't going to get tired of anytime soon. Just thinking about it brought tears to his eyes.

As if he sensed Jack's change of mood, John moved a bit closer, crowing him on his left side. On the other side, Rose snuggled into is shoulder. He was nicely trapped but had to go to the loo. He tried to carefully disengage the two hands, so to crawl gently out of the bed without waking his two partners. He failed miserably.

John gave him a questioning look.

"Baby's playing with my bladder," he mumbled.

John gave way, and Jack went to release the pressure. As he went to wash his hand he found himself face to face with the large bathroom mirror and didn't recognise the man looking back at him.

He looked more like a big eunuch-slug than the fit 51st century male he remembered. Not that he was really fat, no he was only five months on, and had lost a lot of weight during the first two months. But the hormones had given him feminine characteristics, and not in the good way. He was kind of flaccid as if all his muscle had melted. Even his splendid jaw line was now sloppy. The only thing still firm was his expending belly.

"Hey, sweetheart, wanting the place," a still sleepy Rose mumbled from behind him. "You're gorgeous," she added tenderly hugging him before heading for the loo.

Rose was pregnant too. Two months. And _she_ was amazingly beautiful.

At the very beginning, three month ago, when they had adopted him so thoughtfully, he had believed they were only interested in the baby. Rose and John had been together for five years but had no kids. It turned out that they just hadn't had time to truly think about it. Jack's arrival changed that and now Rose was pregnant too.

Even so, he was still there, still cared for as he had never been in his whole life, not even during his childhood. So why was he still feeling out of place, with that knot of insecurity gnawing perpetually in the pit of his stomach?

"Hey, coming back to sleep?" Rose said, taking his hand to lead him back into the bed.

He sighed. He was not going to cry again. He was tired of crying, weeping with no reason at all, all day long. He bit hard on his lower lip. How could they bear it? He managed to get back to the middle of the bed without losing it. It was his place, as if they were afraid he'd run away in the middle of the night. At least, he had stopped being sick. He settled comfortably between his two lovers and released a new sigh as John arranged the duvet on top of them.

...

"So, how are you doing?" the medic asked.

"You're the doc. You tell me." Jack answered.

Doctor Owen Harper was the Institute medic watching over Jack's pregnancy. Jack hated to have to come to the Institute; it made him feel like he was some sort of freak.

"Still jumpy?"

"I'm not jumpy. Rose is jumpy," Jack answered. "As for me, I'm just annoyingly weepy."

"No improvement?"

He sighed. In fact, lately he was sighing more often than he was crying.

"Perhaps," he admitted reluctantly.

"Your hormonal levels are stabilising. It should become better every day now," Harper said. "Did you choose a name?"

"Tino."

The medic looked up from his file, with a questioning stare.

"That a boy name," the medic said, "In fact it's not even a name, but—"

"I like Tino, and John and Rose like it too." In fact, Rose and John had also tried to tell him that Tino wasn't a good match for a baby girl, but probably got so tired of seeing him cry that they gave up before it came to that again.

"Okay. So let's have a look at little Tino," the medic said beckoning him to an alien scanner. "No other disturbing side effects?" he asked.

"Besides getting up twice a night to go to the loo, weeping like a three-year-old, not being able to see my dick, which by the way, is failing me undisputedly? No nothing new."

"You didn't mention the nausea," the medic noted. "Does that mean, it stopped?"

"Let's just say that, I managed to keep my last three breakfasts."

"That's an improvement, no?"

"Yeah, may be." Jack said, studying the image on the monitor.

"Looks like little Tino is doing fine," the medic said, not turning off the scan. "I got someone waiting in the other room, I'll be back in five minutes," he said, and leaving the room he added "You two need a little privacy."

Jack was not really listening. _He was going to have a baby_. Until now, he'd always avoided looking the screen, not wanting to acknowledge the small human being growing in his belly. Finding out that he was pregnant had been a shock; male pregnancy was highly risqué even in his time, and as a defence mechanism he had blocked out this part. _He was going to be a mum_. This time when the tears came, they didn't force their way out, threatening to overwhelm him once again. No, they just gently ran down his cheeks.

He was feeling disturbingly happy.


	3. Chapter 3

**Title: **The Tardis' Teddy bear

**Characters: Nine, Jack and Rose.**  
**Rating: **PG-13  
**Summary:** The Doctor got caught at his own joke and Rose got herself a nice teddy bear.  
**Warnings: **Pure fluff  
**Disclaimer: **Of course I'm not making any money out of this, only the BBC and RTD are allowed to  
**Author's note:** Written for a French challenge, prompt being : fur.  
**Beta**: imzadimylove

"Do you have fleas?" Rose asked.

It was already a while since Jack began scratching. He had started with one arm, then the other, then his thigh and now his back.

"I don't know, but it tickles everywhere," he replied.

"It tickles or it itches?" the Doctor asked intrigued.

"Well, a bit of both. Anyway, it's pretty annoying," Jack replied, even though he was obviously not considering abandoning his reading yet.

"You should maybe go and take a shower," Rose suggested taking the book out of his hand. "Before you rip your skin apart."

"Would you come with me and scratch my back?"

"No way, you perv! What if you're contagious?" she objected laughingly.

"Cheap excuse," he grumbled as he rose and moved toward the door. "Good night Doc," he said on his way.

"Good night, Jack," the Time Lord replied dubiously. "Rose, did you by any chance eat any of those cupcakes I purposely discouraged you from consuming on Catranis?"

"Uh, I didn't, but Jack said they were highly prised delicacy where he comes from, and that there were no cons-indications for Human," Rose confessed with a somewhat guilty look.

"But you didn't? Not even tasted?" he asked.

"No, whatever Jack says, I didn't find them appealing."

"I think that we're bound to have some fun," the Doctor said cracking a smile from ear to ear.

"It can't be serious?" Rose asked a bit worried.

"Oh, no, just a minor, but rather surprising, allergic reaction." the Doctor replied playfully, plunging back into his own book.

...

All night, Jack had twisted and turned in his bed like a mad man, then totally exhausted had managed to fall asleep.

He awoke damped with sweat certain to have caught a raging fever. However the itching had subsided. He got up to take a shower before calling the Doctor. If he was getting something, it would be better not to risk passing it onto Rose.

He went blindly toward the bathroom, the Tardis only gradually lighting the room in order to protect his feverish tired eyes. But as he arrived before the large mirror, Jack eyes opened wide at the large, stunned, ash-blue Yeti looking back at him.

He was just a huge ball of blue hair!

"Doooc!" he called mentally, hoping that the Tardis would pass on the Time Lord.

The Doctor arrived flanked by Rose, to find Jack wearing only his fur and a sheepish look.

"Oh!" Rose exclaimed, her eyes widening in amazement. Rose was now getting used of seeing Jack naked on any occasion, but frankly, the blue hair was quite impressive.

"Nice fur! It would make a nice coat," the Doctor said with a grin.

"What is it? What's happening to me?"

"That would be an allergic reaction to surviva's seeds, I'd say," the Doctor replied.

"What's that? Never heard of it," Jack said.

He was magnificently covered with a beautiful fleece that would have made a silver fox jealous. The hair was shorter on his face and the lower abdomen. It was reduced to soft velvet on the most intimate part of his anatomy. It was of a very nice blue that matched his eyes.

"There must have been surviva's seeds in the caduc cakes you hate Yesterday," the Doctor explained.

"And since when there is such seeds in caduc cakes?" Jack asked.

"The question should rather be; _when did the Catranecques stop putting surviva's seeds in caduc cakes?_" the Doctor replied mockingly.

They had made a stop on Catranis long before humans began to frequent this space area. During the 37th century, with the arrival of these new settlers, the Catranecques had changed their recipe to be able to sell their fantastic pastries to all these new customers and not only to those heading for the snowy colony of Fortanogue.

Obviously, by Jack's time the side effects of the original recipe had been long forgotten.

"Greed is bad for your health," the Doctor concluded.

"You should listen sometimes," Rose added reproachfully.

However, Rose was very well aware that the Doctor had taken care of warning her, but without giving her any explanations, and had said nothing to Jack, who was bound to be tempted and had no reason to be wary of a pastry that reminded him of childhood.

The Captain wasn't blinded enough by the Doctor not to realise it too. He decided to take revenge in his own way; walking around naked in the ship all day, claiming it was too hot.

"You could shave." Rose proposed.

"It would grow more thickly," the Doctor warned them. "Removing the hair would be more efficient," he added with a sadistic smile.

"No way! Anyway, I'm just fine," Jack replied. This was beginning to turn to his advantage. Rose seemed to find his new fur irresistible and never missed an opportunity to put her hands on it. This, of course, prodigiously annoyed the Doctor.

"He's not going to stay like this, right?" she asked.

"It's only a matter of a few days," the Doctor replied.

...

When the Doctor went back from the bridge he was somewhat surprised by the low temperature in the library.

"Jack, I know you're always too hot, but Rose is going to catch a cold," he said to Jack who was lying face down on the sofa and, as usual, immersed in a book.

"Don't worry Doc," Rose replied from where she was lying comfortably trapped between Jack and the back of the sofa. "He's so very warm and soft," she added with a mischievous grin.

Jack was almost covering her and was of course completely naked under that fur.

"Well, I think I should have an antidote somewhere," the Doctor said, turning on his heel towards the lab.

"I think you were right," Rose said instinctively scratching Jack's nape.

"Yep, obviously. Time Lord or not, he is still a man. I told you he was jealous," Jack replied, rubbing deliciously against her.

"Stop it," she said, pushing him off the sofa and onto the floor. He took her down with him and they rolled together on the carpet.

"Are you sure you don't want a cuddling with your favourite teddy bear while there's still time?" Jack asked lasciviously.

"You never stop!" she replied giggling.

"You can talk," he replied.

When the doctor returned, the temperature had returned to normal, but his two companions had vanished. Nothing was ever going to stop those two, he told himself.

When he asked the Tardis, she told him that Jack had caught a flea and Rose was giving him a hand finding it. Of course! If even his ship got involved and turned her back on him, he was lost. This wasn't fair.

End!


	4. Chapter 4

**Title:** The Missing Tardis - 1/2

**Author:** Takisys

**Characters/pairings:** Nine/Jack/Rose

**Chapter Rating:** PG-13

**Spoilers/warnings:** none

**Beta:** imzadimylove

**Disclaimer:** Still not making money out of this. Characters are still belonging to RTD and the BBC.

**Summary:** Just as Jack got his Tardis key the Tardis went missing.

A/N: Written for the OT3 H/C Bingo fic-a-thon. The prompt was "Missing Tardis"

Prologue

Jack and Rose were having tea in the Tardis library. This was definitely Jack's favourite room after the bridge of course. He was telling Rose some shameless anecdotes about his stay on Acaba and the different encounters he had there. Rose was of course laughing, and that was just fantastic. He had missed her laugh, missed her and the Doctor, not to mention the Tardis herself.

When he told the Doctor he would stay to help Acaba's children, and that, whatever it meant, he never hoped the Time Lord would come back for him. At that point, the Doctor was just beginning to trust Jack, or at least had stopped suspecting him of being worse than he really was. It had been obvious, from the beginning that the Doctor had saved him from the explosion of his ship only because Rose had cared.

So when he gave the Time Lord an opportunity to leave him behind with a good excuse, he never really even dreamed of ever see them again. Because, after all, Jack had been the one to ask it.

"Here's your key," the Doctor said joining them.

Jack stared at it, not daring to take it, as if he was afraid it was a lure and would vanish as soon as he tried to grasp it.

"Take it, it's yours," the Doctor said displaying a wide smile making him look like some sort of maniac.

Was it pride that crossed the Time Lord's face for just a moment, or was Jack making it up?

"You did good. It was a really a brave act," the doctor added.

'I'm afraid, it won't make much difference in the long run," Jack sighed.

"Why do you say that?" Rose asked, then turning toward the Doctor. "Why don't you tell him how proud you are of him?"

"We don't want his ego to get much bigger, even the Tardis is not that large," the Doctor bantered. "As to answer your question, Jack, it will make a difference and a big one."

"Are you saying that I provoked a paradox?"

"Yep."

"And you didn't stop me?"

"No."

"Why ?" Jack asked at a complete loss.

"As a time traveller, you know that time isn't a straight line," the Doctor said gesturing in a very funny way. "And all paradoxes aren't always wrong. In fact this one was meant to be."

"So why didn't you say so?" Rose asked. "Why did you try to talk him into not interfering?"

"One, because it had to be his choice. Two, because I didn't know he was the missing element of that multi-dimensional equation."

Jack was now playing with the key, still staring at it like a kid at a Christmas tree.

"Welcome aboard, Captain. You're now officially part of the team," the Doctor said.

...

The Missing Tardis

The Tardis had materialized in a very active street leading to fairgrounds. Beta Lambda was a large city rather nice, more futuristic from Rose's perspective and somewhat retro from Jack's. In the eyes of the Doctor it was obviously a fascinating place anyway. After a joyous stroll downtown, the three friends had stopped for a drink of také, a very popular local drink.

"It's imperative that you attend a Dafoe," the Doctor said, turning to Rose.

"What's that?" the young girl asked, a bit distracted by Jack's attitude. He was clearly flirting with a strange blue creature sitting at the counter.

"It's a kind of ritual dance, a kind of fertility dance. Go on without me," Jack said, glancing mischievously at the funny caterpillar, thus confirming Rose's suspicions. "When you've seen one, you've seen all of them," he added, casting an amused glance at the Doctor.

"I think what our young friend is saying is that he needs a little space," replied the Doctor, rising and inviting Rose to do the same. "We'll meet at the Tardis?" he said to the Captain.

"I'll be there," Jack replied sinking a little more lasciviously in his seat.

"Don't be too long. We might leave without you," the Doctor joked.

"Are you aware that you're bound to be stuck there for 4 hours?" Jack replied, sending Rose an eloquent glance.

"4 hours?" Rose asked a bit worried.

"More or less," the Doctor replied, taking her arm and dragging her off to the place. Jack waited until they were gone to make a sign to the alluring Béto from the counter to join him at his table.

...

Arriving on the outskirts of the circular plaza where the famous ritual dances took place, the Doctor looked upset. Two humanoids accompanied by a Teflan had attracted his attention; and were obviously not your ordinary tourists.

"Is there a problem?" Rose asked, seeing the shadows in the Time Lord's eyes.

"Just me trying to make up my mind," the Doctor replied, smiling from ear to ear, trying to distract Rose's concern. "Over here," he added, indicating some unattended seats in the bleachers arranged around the plaza for the sightseers.

Despite Rose's laughter, the Doctor had a hard time enjoying the show. He couldn't take his eyes off the suspicious trio. The Doctor wasn't alone in his curiosity: twice his eyes had crossed the Teflan's shifty ones. Did he feel the Time Lord's gaze? If not, what was he looking for in this motley crowd?

"Stay here," the Doctor said. "I'm just going to get us some drinks, I'll be right back."

"Yes, that's what you kept saying," Rose replied with a smirk, but quickly turning her attention back to the show.

The Doctor headed towards the bar where the Teflan was already in line. He arrived in time to see the feline handing over his payment. He was wearing around his hairy paw, a leather strap similar to Jack's: he had it right; these guys were Temporal Agents. The Doctor very politely let him leave and took his place to order two takés for him and Rose.

What were three temporal agents here for? Was he imagining it or was it Rose that they were watching now? The Doctor returned to his seat. The rest of the show was uneventful apart from a few funny looks but nothing more. Rose had had lot of fun, but she finally found it too long, so they made their way back towards the Tardis. Night began to fall along with the temperature, causing them to pick up their pace.

"I hope Jack won't stay out too long, and hasn't found himself in some new trouble," the Doctor banterer gently. They had crossed the square, now almost deserted, turning onto the narrow street where the Tardis was parked.

"Where is she?" Rose gasped, arriving near the big blue-flowered tree where the ship should have been parked.

The Doctor froze, transfixed by a flood of feelings that overwhelmed him all at once.

"What dirty little vermin," he muttered between his teeth.

Rose, more surprised than anything else, was trying to make sense of what was happening, checking her benchmarks. No, there was nothing wrong, they were in the right street in front of the right tree but there was definitely no blue phone box.

"It's impossible, the Tardis could not have left alone, right?" she finally asked the Doctor.

"No, not alone, she can deflect a trajectory, but can't leave on her own," he replied dryly.

Freezing cold had settled in his mind. His ship, his precious ship, his only true companion was gone. How could he have been stupid enough to entrust that cocky conman with a key to his ship. It was unlikely that these Time Agents would be able to control the Tardis, with any luck she wasn't far away and he would still have time to find her.

"We'll find her, she can't be far," Rose muttered echoing his own thoughts.

"Probably," the Doctor replied, and then noticing a hostel, he added, handing her his psychic paper: "It's getting cold, you'll better wait here."

"And what about Jack? He is bound to show up any time now." the girl protested.

"I doubt that we'll ever see him again," he replied blankly.

"What are you saying, Doctor?"

"That he has stolen the Tardis with his accomplices help."

"His accomplices? Who? And why?"

"Temporal Agents, I spotted three of them monitoring us all day long,. And as for why, simply because that's what he is Rose, a shameless crook working for an extemporal criminal organisation."

"Jack would never do anything like that! Certainly not to you, or me."

"Okay. Right. Stay here, if you want." he said annoyed. "I'll go and find my ship."

Rose shrugged. The Time Lord was way out of sorts, and it was useless to try talk to him. She would wait for Jack alone, and as soon as he arrived, they would try to make sense of it together. It was really starting to get chilly, so to warm up a little, she began to pace.

...

Jack's good luck ultimately didn't happen to be that good. He had suspected the trap and dodged just in time to avoid falling into the clutches of a fresh meat purveyor. His ego had taken a good hit, but as a fair loser he decided to look elsewhere. When he couldn't find anything interesting, he went back to the Tardis. He would take a dip in the swimming pool while waiting for the others.

When he arrived by the great crayeux, he had first wondered how he could have taken the wrong street. Then he had to face the terrible reality: they had left without him. After given him the Tardis' key, the Doctor had left without him. Jack looked at his key, his invaluable key he'd never had the chance to use. He wondered if it was even the real thing.

Why, why so much cruelty? What had he done to deserve this? He had not even asked for it, it was the Doctor who gave him the key. And why come back at Acaba to abandon him at the next stop? Jack walked aimlessly away heartbroken and his stomach in knots. This time they had left without him.

...

Night had fallen, and the street was almost deserted now. The arrival of a large maintenance vehicle had forced Rose and two other bystanders to retreat inside the hostel. It was the kind of cleaner whose bulk intruded onto the pavement. It seemed to move on airbags, taking its time, advancing silently. Rose watched suspiciously; had the Tardis not disappeared, she would have been in its path.

"Are the streets cleaned often?" she asked one of the bystanders.

"Once a day," the native replied.

"Always at night?" she asked with a sigh, as for just one moment she had solve the missing Tardis mystery.

"In the north-south-north way, yes."

"What?"

"Well because it's not that easy to handle those engines. When reaching the end of a street, it would come back trough the next one. At the end of the night it will have finished with all the parallel streets, then in the morning, he will attack the transversals," a patron explained.

"And what happen when something gets in its way?"

"It's taken to the pound," replied succinctly the hostel lady who was clearing a nearby table. "Like this morning, they boarded a big blue box that someone had left lying in the middle of the passage."

"A big blue box?" Rose asked amused and relieved, the Tardis had been taken to the pound as any stupid wrongly parked car. So much for the Doctor and his sudden panic.

"Yes, big like that, and the funny thing is that before the cleaner had struck it, no one had noticed it."

"And they shipped it to the pound?" Rose repeated, teary-eyed and ready to burst out laughing.

"Of course."

It was now completely dark, and neither the Doctor nor Jack had shown up. Hopefully the two men found each other and were running through the cold night, looking for the Tardis. They might spend all night, surveying the city through the freezing cold, like the two idiots they were.

"I'll have something hot, please," Rose asked settling herself by a table that had just been released. She would wait there, where it was warm. She had a clear view of the side of the street where they should return to.

To be continued.


	5. Chapter 5

Title: The Missing Tardis - 2/2

Author: Takisys

Characters/pairings: Nine/Jack/Rose

Chapter Rating: PG-13

Spoilers/warnings: none

Beta: imzadimylove

Disclaimer: Still not making money out of this. Characters are still belonging to RTD and the BBC.

Summary: Just as Jack got his Tardis key the Tardis went missing.

A/N: Written for the OT3 H/C Bingo fic-a-thon. The prompt was "Missing Tardis"

...

For a while, the Doctor had wandered through downtown, routinely visiting pubs in search of someone who could tell him about temporal agents. Eventually, he found Jack. A quite drunk Jack quarrelling with two quidam barely sober than him. The two associates, however, were still enough lucid not to insist when the Doctor stepped in to claim their target. Jack, himself, remained stunned.

"Are you really here?" he mumbled in a husky voice.

"Where's my ship?" the Doctor shut him up, in a tone that brooked no discussion.

Jack was utterly taken aback, unable to articulate any coherent response.

"I will not ask a third time, Jack. Where's my ship?"

"I thought you were gone," Jack finally mumbled, slowly emerging from the glow of hypervodka fogging his brain.

"Alright then," the Time Lord replied out of patience, and plunged without any warning, into the Captain's mind. Jack, whose mind was usually permanently locked in tight, didn't try to resist. The Doctor, however, didn't play nice despite his victim's passivity. He searched in every corner of Jack's psyche, opening all the doors and drawers of his subconscious memory. All this for nothing. He couldn't find any trace of his precious Tardis in Jack's mind, except for the affection and admiration Jack had for her.

"I thought you were gone," the Captain repeated when the Doctor withdrew, but he was as limp as a rag doll, unable to stand on his own two legs beginning to slide down the wall against which the Doctor had pushed him, crumbling to the ground. Jack's mind was filled with confusion.

"I thought you were gone," he repeated like a broken record.

The Doctor looked at him a moment, just in time to calm down and find his wits, fully aware of what he had done.

"I thought you were gone."

Jack was sincere and wasn't only blameless but completely helpless. He had even thrown his key away in the street convinced that it was a decoy.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor finally uttered helping the young man to get up. "What do you say about you and me searching for your key?" he said, putting his arm under Jack's to help him walk.

"I thought you were gone."

"Yes, I did get that," the Doctor replied, aware that Jack was stuck on that sentence. He would have to help Jack to restore some order in his head, but not here and now where they were beginning to attract other customers' attention.

"What's going on, here?" the owner asked drawn by the fuss.

"Nothing to see; move along," the Doctor replied, waving the psychic paper he had surreptitiously recovered from Jack's pocket. "I'll take care of this."

He left without delay but he was seriously slowed down by the dead weight of Jack. He tried to work out the direction Jack had come from. Eventually, he found a landmark, something he had noticed in Jack's head, and after a good 15 minutes of walking, they found the key.

"I thought you were gone," the Captain said when the Doctor put his key back in his pocket.

"I know, but you were wrong, and that's your key, I 'm not going to give you another one, so try not to lose it."

That's when the Doctor's attention was attracted to a huge vehicle advancing silently through the night.

"Don't go anywhere," he said to Jack, wedging him against the nearest wall.

He darted towards the vehicle jumping at the driver's cab door waving, once again, the psychic paper at the driver to stop his vehicle.

"What's going on?" the driver asked.

"Did you by any chance see a blue box, a big blue box?"

"In fact I did in the late morning at the corner of parallel 411 and traverse 52."

"And where is she now?"

"Well, obviously at the pound."

"Which would be located, where?"

"Sector Nine." the driver replied pursuing his green scales suspiciously.

"That got to be on the far side of the city, right?" the Doctor said disappointed.

"That's right."

"Well, thank you. You're doing a hell of a job. It's good. Move on," the Doctor said getting down from his perch.

"I thought you were gone," the Captain repeated when the Doctor came to pick him up at the wall against which the Time Lord had left him.

"Yes, I already got that point," the Doctor replied bracing the Captain against his body for support. "Let's get back to Rose. You want to see Rose, right?"

"I thought you were gone."

The return took a while. The Captain was a rag doll weighing more than it's due even to a Time Lord, and if it that wasn't enough, stumbled at every step.

"Oh God!" Rose exclaimed, as soon as she spotted them immediately sensing that something bad had occurred. "What's going on? What happened?"

"The Tardis has been impounded," the Doctor replied not really wanting to discuss of what had happened to Jack if he could avoid it.

"I thought you were gone," Jack said, staring.

"And you got pissed," Rose concluded. "Very clever of you."

"We'll take a room and you'll watch over him while I'll go to recover the Tardis," the Doctor proposed.

The tenant wasn't very happy with the look of their party, but Rose offered to pay in advance and twice the price.

"I warn you, if he does any damage, I'll charge you for it," she said.

"He won't do any harm," the Doctor assured.

Rose looking at Jack, wasn't so sure of it.

"I won't be long. I'll come back to pick you here," he said comfortably installing Jack on the bed.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ..

The Doctor had been as quick as he could manage. He didn't want to let Jack alone with Rose longer than what could be avoided, not because he feared anything bad would happen. In the state he was in, the Captain wasn't likely to hurt anyone, even if he fell out of bed. However, Rose would be really worried if she realized that Jack drinking hypervodka wasn't the worst part.

"What's wrong with him?" she asked jumping on him as soon as he walked out of the Tardis. He had landed the ship directly in the room. "I wonder if he hasn't taken any other crap, he keeps repeating the same sentence as if he was stuck."

"He's going to be fine, I'll take care of him," he replied taking Jack in his arms to carry him into the Tardis. "You should go to bed; you must be tired, aren't you?"

"Are you sure he'll be okay?"Rose asked, tears threatening.

"I'll stay with him. Trust me; tomorrow morning he'll be up and ready to embrace new adventures."

"You're aware that I'm no longer a little girl Doc, right?"

The Doctor raised questioning eyebrows.

"I don't know what you're trying to hide, but he better be fine tomorrow," she replied with a look of genuine concern.

"He's strong," the Doctor replied with a smile he intended to be reassuring. "And he is also quite heavy, so I'll take him to bed now."

He carried the young man into his room and laid him onto his bed. The Tardis had subdued lights and was anxiously purring.

"Jack," the Doctor said, sitting down beside him. "What will it take you to trust me and to let me in again?" he whispered, trying to catch Jack's attention as his eyes were rolling in all directions. "Jack."

Eventually Jack's look crossed the Doctor's, there was a brief glimmer of understanding, and then he was gone again.

"Okay, well I think I'll have to consider that it was a _yes_ the Doctor said sadly with a sigh. He was perfectly aware that the first time back in the bar, Jack had consciously dropped all his defences to let him enter. The risk was that now that Jack was conspicuously absent, the defensive reflexes conditioned by the Temporal Agency would take over. The Time Lord didn't think for one second that this would prevent him from achieving his goal, but for Jack it would be even more painful and traumatic.

Very carefully and gently, the Time Lord plunged again into the young man's mind. As before, he found no resistance, and with great thoroughness, he restored order in the nameless mess he had made.

_* You came back,* _Jack noticed.

_* Yes, let me help you do some housekeeping.*_

_*Thank you,*_ Jack replied, gradually picking up the thread of his ideas.

The Doctor placed a kiss on his forehead before leaving the room. The Captain was sleeping deeply, and as he had promised Rose, he would be fine the next day.

Epilogue

Only barely awake Rose changed into jeans and t-shirt to run immediately towards Jack's room. He wasn't in and his bed was made. She checked by the swimming pool, but there was any trace of Jack either. Finally, she found the Doctor in the library.

"Where's Jack? He's not in his room," she dropped by way of greeting.

"He should be in the kitchen. He told me he was starving," the Doctor replied, and with a big smile, he added "I was told it was a good sickness."

They actually found Jack in the process of cooking a qutrlal egg.

"Hey!" he protested when Rose threw herself at his neck.

"You scared the hell out of me."

"I was told," he replied, holding her tight. "I'm fine, I promise. Do you want some? I'll prepare another one," he proposed, gesturing toward the enormous blue egg.

"No, no, I can't eat that much," she protested. "Seriously, what was it, yesterday?"

"Hypervodka."

"You said yourself that it was dangerous and could burn out the brain."

"Where I come from, they say the old demons are also the most faithful," he said, putting a kiss in her hair, his eyes meeting the Doctor's who looked at them with sweet affection.

Earlier they had agreed not to tell Rose what really did happen to Jack. The two men had too often been betrayed in the past. And despite all their efforts, and even if it doesn't translate the same way for one or the other, fear of being disappointed, to be betrayed again was always lurking as a hideous monster in the deepest recesses of their hearts.

End.


End file.
